Uncoupling device.



L. L. MORSE. FOLDABLB TRAY AND RACK SUPPORT.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 29, 1909.

956,399. A Patented Apr. 26, 1910..

ANDREW e` GRAHAM cov, Pnomuwosmwens, wAsumGfdNrD- C citizen of theUnited States, residing in Jhe city and county of San Francisco andState of California, have invented new and useful Improvements inFoldable Tray and Rack Supports, of which the following is aspecication.

This invention relates to stands or supports for display trays andracks.

A purpose of this invention is to provide a strong, light, portablesupport for card racks, seed trays, etc.; to provide an inexpensivearticle for gratuitous distribution to retailers by wholesalers, ormanufacturers; and to provide a stand or support, in combination withsuch racks or trays, that is adapted to be folded in to small compass toeconomize in freight expense.

The invention consists of the parts and the construction and combinationof parts as hereinafter more fully described and claimed, havingreference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is aperspective of the improved support. Fig. 2 is a perspective of a doublesupport. Fig. 3 is a detail of a portion of a tray and support, showingthe hanger. I

It is customary for large manufacturers to distribute to their customerstrays, racks, holders, boxes, or the like, in which to display thearticles 0r goods to be vended; and unless some device is furnished tosupport these trays in an advantageous, conspicuous manner, the retailerwill relegate the goods to some remote corner or shelf, or will be putto the expense of erecting a supporting device.

I have found it commercially practical and advantageous to providesuitable trays A for holding goods, and a complementary support B forsupporting the trays. The support B may be made of any suitable width orheight, to accommodate a plurality of trays A, and comprises a pair ofvertical stanchions 2 connected by tie rods 3 3, upon the upper one ofwhich is pivotally journaled an outside, inclined leg 4, and a parallelleg 5 pivoted between, but adjacent to one of the stanchions. Toenhance' the appearance, and facilitate the manufacture of the support,the lower portions of the legs are slightly curved, and stand verticalon the floor being rolled back to form feet 6, the standards 2 andlegsbeing preferably made of flat, strip steel,

therefore foldable into small compass for convenience in packing andshipping, and when opened out in the standing position are braced bysuitable knuckle-jointed braces 7 7 pivoted upon each stanchion and leg.At suitable points along the inclined legs 4 -5 are secured smalltriangular plates 8, arranged in horizontal pairs having hooks or lugs 9formed upon the upper outer end, and the upper ends of the legs 4.--5also are formed with similar lugs 10.

The display trays A are made with complementary hooks or lips 11,punched in the back 12, and these hooks 11 are adapted to engage andhang upon those of the support B.

The support shown in Fig. 1 is constructed to hold three trays, and inFig. 2 I have shown a double support embodying two sets of thehook-carrying legs 4 5, dispensing with the stanchions 2, and capable ofholding six trays. Obviously, these supports may be made higher andbroader to accommodate trays of different sizes, and are strongneat-appearing devices. When folded a number of them may be packed intoa small easily crated pile.

The upper ends of the legs 4 5 are preferably bent for a short distanceto form vertical extensions 13 parallel to the back 12 of the inclinedtrays A.

H aving thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent is- A rack and tray support consisting of inclinedbars formed with the upper and lower ends bent at an angle to theintermediate portion and to stand in approximately vertical position andparallel with each other and with the back of the tray, tie-rods unitingthe upper and lower ends, one bar of each pair lying outside and theother inside of the contiguous bar, jointed flexible brace bars betweenthe sides, and upwardlyopening forwardly-presented notched supports uponsaid side bars and at the upper extremity of said side bars.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand Vin the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

LESTER L. MORSE. Witnesses:

ANNE B. SINNoTT, Gmo. E. LAwToN.

JEAN-BAPTISTE MOYET & H. BOUVIER. UNGOUPLING DBVIGB.

APPLIGATIN FILED JUNE 21, 1907. 956,400, Patented Apr. 26, 1910.

SHEETS-SHEETS.

Fig. 5.

JEAN-EAPTST MOYET AND HENRI BOUVIER, oF GRENOBLE, FRANCE.

UNCPLIN G- DEVICE.

Serial No. 380,049.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that we JEAN -BAPTISTE MOYET, station-master, of Place de laGare, Grenoble, Isre, France, and HENRI BOU- VIER, engineer, of 58 Ruedu Polygone, Grenoble, Isre, France, have invented a certain new anduseful Uncoupling Device, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact description and for which we have applied for Letters Patent inFrance, dated 'June 28, 1906, No. 367,823; Great Britain, dated February20, 1907; Germany, dated February 21, 1907 Roumanie., dated March 16/28,1907; Austria, dated February 21, 1907; Hungary, dated February 27, 1907and Russia, dated March 27, 1907.

This invention has for object the construction of an automatic couplingfor wagons and vehicles of all kinds employed upon railways.

The improved automatic coupling is of the type in which there is fittedto each end of every wagon a half-apparatus comprising two dissimilarand complementary hooks placed one on either side of the center line ofthe wagon so that in approaching wagons each of the hooks of thehalf-apparatus will be faced by a complementary hook upon the otherwagon.

The invention is hereafter described'with reference t0 the annexeddrawings in which Figures 1 and 2 represent in elevation and in planrespectively the coupling appa- Y ratus. Fig. 3 1s an end view of thetumblers whichcarry the hooks, the latter being removed. Fig. trepresents in longitudinal section the windlass or winder serving toeffect the uncoupling. Fig. 5 shows in elevation and on a smaller scalethe method of applying the ropes and winders to the headstock of awagon.

This coupling consists in principle of two sets of two hooks; each setforming a halfcoupling is fixed to one of the extremities of each wagonand comprises a hook of the upper type a and a hook of the lower type band various accessory appliances. Each half-coupling is exactly similarto all the others, so that in turning the wagons an upper hook is alwaysfaced by a lower hook ,and vice versa. The apparatus is thus always inthe coupling position, whatever be the relation in which the facingwagons present themselves.

Each hook is traversed by a spindle c around which it can turn freely;each of these spindles is fixed to a tumbler cl. The two tumblers arethemselves connected by a pin e and cross-pieces f and g; thesecrosspieces are doubly cranked and form stops limiting at h, z' theOscillation of theup er rook a nd at y', 7c that of the lower hook (gee4ig. 3

As a consequence of the freedom of the hooks to move between theirrespective stops the coupling can be accomplished even if there exists acertain difference of height between the drawbars of any two wagons tobe coupled and. once this coupling is effected the system formed of thefour hooks places itself in the plane ofthe pull passing through thespindles c c of the hooks.

Patented Apr. 26, 1910.

The pin e passes through the eye of the drawbar shank which all types ofpresentday wagons carry, in such a way that the whole of the partsenumerated can swing around this pin e which transmits to the drawbarthe pull received by the hooks. They eyes of the drawbar shank throughwhich the pins e are passed are elongated or Oval as shown in Fig. 1;this slight lateral clearance permits the coupling to assume anObliquity in the horizontal plane with relation to the axes of thecoupled wagons and so facilitates the passage of curves.

` The spindles c are extended to form forks Z which can be maintained inthe position indicated (F ig. 1) by means of supports m the ends ofwhich may be entered into the forks Z, where they are locked by pins a.These supports are carried by the headstock of the wagon, butthey` arepreferably arranged so as to be able to slide in sockets 0 fixed to thisheadstock with a view to allowing the relative movements of the couplingmechanism and the wagon, whatever be the intensity of the traotiveforce; their stroke is limited by nuts p. The locking pins n being onceremoved, the supporting rods m can be pushed back under the wagon; thespindles c being thus released, the half-coupling is no longer supportedexcept by the pin e and it takes up a substantially vertical position.

vEach of the hooks a is continually acted on by a spring g placed in acylindrical box, this box being connected to the hook a by a rod, andcarrying two horizontal trunnions allowing it to oscillate in a verticalplane. The two trunnions are mounted upon a support r fixed to thedrawbar or to a crossmember of the wagon frame.

The hooks a each carry an arm s in the eye of which is secured a cableor chain for raising the hook; this cable is wound iirst over the pulleyt then 'is doubled inA two lengths each of which after having passedover one of the jockey pulleys u, is attached to the moving part o ofone of the winding appliances w placed one on the right, the other onthe lett o each headstock of the wagon.

The winders (Fig. t) are formed each of a movable yoke o to theextremity of which. is attached the cable or chain; the other extremitycarries two spring claws x which are adapted to seize the nut y whichtravels upon the screw e. This nut comprises two inclined planes; thesaine applies to the cone 'w1 fixed to the frame of the Winder near'thehand wheel.

The working of the apparatus is as follows z-JNith the arrangement whichhas been described, when one wagon is caused to approach a neighboringwagon, the hook a of each of the half-couplings rises by sliding on theinclined plane presented by the corresponding hook b. At a certainmoment the lower stop of the hook a has passed the upper stop of thehook b, the gripping then takes place under the action of the weight ofthe hooks and also by the eifect of the restraining springs g which havebeen conipressed to a certain extent during the rise of the hooks.

The length of the hooks c and b may be determined in such a way thatonce coupled up, the buffers of the two wagons in contact may be drivenin to a certain degree, or on the other hand, the hooks may have alength sufficient to leave a certain clearance between the buers whenthe coupling is effected.

In order to obtain the uncoupling of two wagons, it suffices to raisethe hooks a by the necessary amount; the raising of these two hooks maybe eEe-cted in succession. The raising of a hook a is obtained byoperating one of the corresponding winders; the nut y, being seizedbetween the claws it suliices to turn the hand wheel to traverse the nutalong the screw s carrying with it the movable yoke c'. Vhen the hook ahas been raised by a suiiicient amount to be free from the correspondinghook Z), it can be maintained in t-he raised position which it occupiesor else, on the contrary, by the continued rotation of the hand wheel inthe same direction, the claws m may be caused to engage upon theinclined planes w1 so as to separate and inally to escape the nut y,whereupon the yoke w becomes independent of the nut y; at this momentthe hook t falls again under the iniiuence of its own weight and by theaction of the recalling spring g. This hook a, is thus returned into theposition for coupling, but it is to be remarked that although the Wagonspreviously coupled have not been moved apart, the hook c in fallingagain cannot by reason of the inclination of the gripping surfacesengage with the corresponding hook b. The coupling is always releasedwhen the two hooks a ot a coupling have been raised, whether the hookshave been kept in the raised position, or have been allowed to drop. Theuncoupling of two wagons is accomplished with the same facility by theexertions of a single man, whether or not there be buiiers and whateverbe the degree of compression of these latter; this is owing to thecontrol ot the hooks by the winding appliances provided. Thispossibility of obtaining a high compression of the buffers withoutrendering the unhooking diilicult is one of the characteristics of theinvention.

The arrangements adopted allow of changing from' the system of automaticcoupling to the present system, by operating in the following manner:First of all the cable or chain connected to the hook a is released:then the locking pins n are removed and the two supports m, pushed back:the halfcouplings being no longer supported swing around the pin .e andthe whole of the parts assume a substantially vertical position belowthe eye of the drawbar. This movement frees the drawbar hook which isthus ready to receive the link of the coupling device at present in useupon the various railway systems. It is to be remarked that the springdevice Q does not oppose the movement of rotation around the pin e, byreason of the jointed connections of this box with relation to the hooka and to its support 7'. Moreover the coupling being accomplished bymeans or' they apparatus described above, the wagons remain united evenif the drawbar should be broken. Indeed the tractive force istransmitted by the hooks to their spindles c and by the forks Z of thelatter to the supports m which are retained in position by the lockingpins n, and finally by the nuts p which actually propel the wagon.Lastly the system lends itself very well to the passage of vehicles overcurves, owing to the slight displacements that the whole apparatus canreceive in its plane by oscillating around the eyes of the drawbars.

We wish it to be understood that the invention is in no way limited tothe details or' execution indicated above. For example, the terms ofupper hook and lower hook have only been employed in order to ix theideas, as it is evident that the coupling and the uncoupling can takeplace by the operation of the lower hooks conveniently actuated by thewindlasses and the restraining springs; in the same way the windlassesmight be of any design whatever and it is not necessary moreover thatthey be made with escapement device; lastly many other accessory detailsmay be varied at will without exceeding the scope of the invention.

hooks automatically return to position after the coupling is broken,substantially as described.

In testimony whereof We have signed our names to this specication, inthe presence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

JEAN-BAPTISTE MOYET. HENRI BOUVIER.

vWitnesses:

JOSEPH CHATROUSSET, ANToNIN DOURILLE.

